Colonel Bath assault: Top court upholds HC order on CBI probe

Hindustan Times

6 hours ago

The Supreme Court on Monday told four Punjab Police cops accused of assaulting a serving army colonel to show some respect for the force which defends the borders in tough terrains and ensure citizens get to sleep peacefully as it dismissed their appeal and subjected them to a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Supreme Court was initially inclined to impose a heavy cost of
₹ 10 lakh on the policemen while dismissing their petition. However, the court refrained from imposing the penalty as it dismissed their petitions.
The alleged incident took place on the intervening night of March 13 and 14 this year when Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath and his son were eating at a roadside dhaba (eatery) in Patiala.
The cops who claimed to have a good service record had approached the top court against the order of the Punjab & Haryana high court of July 16 when the probe was entrusted to CBI. Earlier, on April 3, a single-judge bench had transferred the probe out of Punjab and tasked an SP-rank officer of Chandigarh police to conduct investigation.
Taking serious exception to the manner in which the police handled the case by allowing the four cops to remain at large since March 14, the top court was at pains to note the irony that during war, the officers of the army are glorified but when it comes to giving them justice, the state allows such 'lawlessness' against the men in uniform to go unpunished.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kumar and SC Sharma said, 'They go to defend you and they come back wrapped in a national flag…Have some respect for the army people. You sleep peacefully in your house because that man at the border is serving you at minus 40 degrees Celsius.'
The bench made this emotional pitch as it noted the facts of the case that despite the incident, it took eight days for an FIR to be lodged by Punjab Police. Later, when the cops applied for anticipatory bail, the same was rejected and yet the senior officers of Chandigarh Police entrusted with the probe, failed to arrest the accused.
'This kind of lawlessness is not acceptable. Your bail was dismissed and yet you are roaming freely. They have not been arrested till date. Let the CBI look into this,' the bench observed.
Earlier, the high court had set a timeline of four months for completion of the probe. However, even after the expiry of the timeline, the accused cops were not arrested by Chandigarh Police.
The four cops claimed that the case was related to a minor scuffle as Colonel Bath (in plain clothes) along with his son refused to move their car while having food at a roadside dhaba (eatery) enroute to Patiala. The cops claimed that the injuries were on non-vital parts that were not life-threatening.
The lawyer appearing for the cops told the top court that the HC has taken a strict view of the matter when the incident involved a minor scuffle. The arguments were opposed by advocate Sumeer Sodhi appearing for the Army Colonel pointing out how the facts revealed a planned attempt to derail the investigation of the case.
The bench said, 'When the war is going on, you glorify these officers and now your senior SP says, I am unable to arrest them in spite of their bail being cancelled, just because they are policemen.'
Taking exception to such an approach, the court was initially inclined to impose a heavy cost of ₹10 lakh on the policemen while dismissing their petition. However, the court refrained from imposing the penalty as it dismissed their petitions observing, 'If you have nothing to hide, why feel shy of an independent enquiry.'
The policemen claimed that they were victims of undue sensationalism as the colonel and his son were drunk and even the policemen sustained injuries during the scuffle.